Various control mechanisms have been provided heretofore for controlling the tension in cloth wound upon large rolls upon take-ups of the type positioned in front of the loom employing spaced aligned rolls. U.S. Letters Pat. Nos. 3,433,430 and 3,525,367 illustrate apparatus utilizing changes in cloth loading to continuously sense and control the speed of the motor drive units to maintain a preset fabric tension level. Contrary to this, it is the purpose of the present invention to control motor operation as through a transformer or rheostat mechanism which is driven by a sensing means engagable with the cloth. It is possible to thus maintain a light tension in the cloth coming from the loom as opposed to the previously relatively heavy tension necessitated for control of prior art mechanisms. Prior devices such as those illustrated in the patents referred to above, produce variations in tension resulting from variations in plant voltage and inability to compensate for variations in tension which result from the size differential in the roll from start to finish.
Accordingly, it is an important object of the present invention to utilize a gravity controlled sensing device for driving a motor control mechanism making possible reliable tension control within very small differentials in tension and which will provide, through the addition of limit switches, a range of permissible tension variations within which the control hereof is to operate.